Envelope machine



June 24, 1930. H J, 085 1,765,419

ENVELOPE MACHINE Filed June 16, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1320672521 Ji aw'o 267 J 6055' June 24, 1930. H. J. Goss ENVELOPE MACHINE F'lled June 16 1928 2. Sheets-Sheet 2 .Zizuaiii Harv M T]. G055 Q7 Patented June 24, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT oF'Flcr HAROLD J. GOSS, OF NASHUA. NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO THE INTERNATIONAL PAPER BOX-MACHINE COMPANY, OF NASH'UA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, A CORPORATION OF MINE Application filed June 16,

This invention relates to the manufacture of folded paper receptacles, and has particular reference to the makingof such receptacles in the form of what areusually called envelopes, the specific shape made by the machine illustrated being vertically elongated and consequently similar to a paper bag having a top flap which may be folded down by hand after the receptacle has been filled. I do not limit myself how I ever to the production of such specific shape of receptacle, as the machine may be readily adjusted to fold blanks of other kinds or shapes to produce receptacles for various purposes such as those which are employed for enclosing mail matter and other material.

Machines of this general type as heretofore constructed comprise primary and secondary folding mechanisms at an angle to each other, the first operating to feed the blanks successively in the direction of one axis of the blanks and partly folding the blanks while travelling, the second mechanism operating to feed the primarily folded blanks in the direction of their transverse axes and completing the folding thereof, the said partly folded blanks belng arrested momentarily in a location at the angle of and intermediate the primary and secondary folding mechanisms.

A machine of the general type referredto is illustrated in Letters Patent No. 1,253,054, issued January 8, 1918, upon an application by Labombarde and Sidebotham, and several other well-known patents.

In all machines of said far as I am aware, each blan is temporarily arrested at the end of the primary folding operation in order that it may be accurately started in a new direction into the secondary folding mechanism. Such stopping of the blanks necessarily involves some waste 0 time in the operation of the entire machine.

Another and an important objection to said general type of machine is that blanks of thin material, such as glassine paper, can

not be accurately and uniformly folded by such machines for two reasons, one being that when the blanks contact with whatever stop devices are employed to arrest them at ENVELOPE MACHINE eneral type, so

BElSS-UED the angle, the thin edges of the blanks are liable to be curled up; and the other being that such thin blanks, after having been 1928. Serial No. 286,010.

primarily folded and consequently having overlapping flap edges, are difficult to start or feed in the new direction without slipmg I The object of the present invention is to provide an improved machine for making such articles as referred to, in which machine the blanks, instead of being moved first in one direction .and then in another direction, with an intermediate stop and associated feeding mechanism, travel continuouslywith no stop and are themselves given a lateral turn while travelling from the primary to the secondary folding mechanism.

With such object in view, the invention consists in the construction and combination of parts substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view, somewhat diagrammatic, of a machine having my improvements, the extreme ends of the machine which are well-known as hereinafter explained, being omitted to provide space for the parts which are included in the present invention.

Figure 2 is an elevation, partly in section on line 2-2 of Figure 1, on a larger scale. Figure 3 is a detail plan view, on a scale larger than Figure 2, of one of the blankturning devices and its carrying members. Figure 4 is a view looking in the direction of the arrow 4 adjacent to Figure 3.

Similar reference characters designate similar parts or features in all of the views- Referring first to Figure 1, four parts or grous of the ,machine are, for convenience 0 description, illustrated under the f letters A, B, C and D. As the frame and gearing of the complete machine may be of any well-known or preferred construction, illustration thereof is unnecessary it being sufiicient to explain that the groups A and D respectively represent portions of the primary and secondary folding mechanisms which may be similar to what is explained in the patent hereinbefore referred to, while the group B represents the mechanism which gives a quarter turn to each primarily folding blank issuing from the group A, and the group C represents the mechanism which ensures squaring up or registration of each turned blank so that it will pass accurately to the group D.

The blanks from a feeding table not necessary to illustrate, are primarily folded, after having glue applied to a marginal portion of each, by mechanism such as illustrated in the patent referred to, which mechanism includes twist belts portions of which are illustrated at 12 in Figure 1; and said primarily folded blanks are transferred by nipper rolls 13 carried by shafts 14 (see also Figure 2) to the mechanism which imparts a quarter turn to each blank and which mechanism forms the principal subj ect matter of the present invention and will now be described. It is'to be understood that the primarily folded blanks issue from the group A singly and in such timed and spaced relationship as to be correctly operated upon .by the travelling turn-table mechanism of group B.

Each primarily folded blank is delivered onto a travelling platform 15 (Figs. 1 and 2) which, preferably, consists of what is known as a silent chain belt. mounted on wide sprockets 16 and is drivenby another wide sprocket 17 carried by a shaft 18. The upper stretch or run of said belt platform travels over a fixed plate 19 so that said stretch can not be flexed or depressed by pressure thereon.

Mounted on tie rods 20, 21, of the mavchine are brackets and bearings for the shafts of sprockets for two chains 22. The sprockets 23 are carried by shaft 24 which is driven by any preferred gearing, and said chains pass over upper sprocket 25 carried by adjustable arms 26 (Fig. 2).

At certain intervals the links of the two chains 22 are connected by a pair of transverse rods 27. Mounted on each pair of rods 27 is a fixed block 28 (Figs. 2 and 4) in which is mounted a vertical spindle 29 to one end of which is secured a friction member 30 preferably of cup-shaped rubber. The other end of the spindle has an arm 31 carrying a roll 32, a spring 33 being employed to tend to hold the arm 31 against a stop 34 rising from the block 28.

Supported by the tie rods 20, 21, through the medium of the brackets that are mounted thereon, are two straight bars 35, 36, (Figs. 2, 3 and 4) .each having a guideway or track 37 in which the links 'of the chains 22 travel when the machine is in operation, said tracks being parallel with the plate 19 which guides the travelling platform, so that the friction members 30,

when travelling as presently described, will hold the blanks under continuously uniform Said belt is pressure from one end to the other of the mechanism illustrated-in Figure 2 and in the'group B of Figure 1.

To cause the friction pressers to turn, while travelling, and in opposition to the action of the springs 33, the bar 36 has mounted thereon two or more arms 38 (Figs. 2 and 4) which fixedly support a strip 39 that is so inclined laterally (Fig. 1) that as each roll 32 rides along its face, the spindle 29 .and the presser 30 carried thereby is turned one quarter of a rotation. Therefore any preliminarily folded blank that is on the chain platform 15 under a presser 30 is turned in its entirety by said presser. That is, no portion of it is arrested; it is bodily turned. 1 Of course the distance between the horizontally guided platform 15 and the horizontally guided spindles which carry the friction pressers is such that each presser, when first carried down to contact with a blank on the platform is marginally flexed so as toobtain a rather wide-spread uniform bodily as described while travelling toward the mechanism illustrated by the.

group C ofFigure 1, in which figure the group C is indicated with a slight space be tween it and the group B because said Figure 1 is practically a diagram. In practice, the chains 41 of group C presently described extend sufficiently past the delivery end of the group B to enable each laterally turned blank that is so delivered, to be landed on said chains 41 just beyond pins 42 carried by said chains.

When the turned blanks pass from group B to group C, the portions of the'blanks which extend laterally from the sides of the platform 15 pass under the curved ends of a pair of stationary guides 40 so that when the cup-shaped pressers 30 pass up over the shaft 24 (Fig. 2) the blanks will not be lifted up bysuction but will be left free to be taken by the chains 41 and their pins 42 of the mechanism of group C, said chains being mounted on sprockets carried by shafts 43, 44. i

Between the chains 41 and parallel therewith is a guide or platform strip 45 mounted on tie rods 46 of the machine frame. Suitably mounted on both sides of said strip and parallel therewith are long friction rolls 47, preferably rubber surfaced, and having worm-gearing connections 48 with the shaft 43, said gearing serving to rotate both of the friction rolls 47 slowly in a direction to.

chains 41, their-object or purpose being to frictionally urge or hold each blank laterally against the edge guide 49 to ensure correct lateral position of each blank forwarded by the chains to the secondary folding mechanismof group D. Sometimes one of thetwo long friction rolls 47 may be omitted.

From the squaring up or laterally registering mechanism just described, the blanks pass, without stopping, to the secondary folding mechanism, but in partially turned positions so that the second folds will be at a right angle to the first-made folds.

Since the secondary folding mechanism is or may be the same as that of the patent hereinbefore referred to, it is suflicient for present purposes to state that it includes belts 50, 51, which carry the turned blanks past a glue disk indicated at 52 and then past inclined rods 53 (one of which is sometimes omitted) by means of which end flap portions are first turned up, said end flaps being then completely folded by twist belts as explained in the patent hereinbefore referred to.

In practice the timing of operation of the entire machine is such that each primarily folded blank is delivered onto the thereof. Then, as the roll 32 of that presser travelling platform 15 in such position thereon thata presser 30, moving down past the upper rolls 13 (Fig. 2) will bear on such blank at substantially the middle spindle rides alongthe cam strip 39, the presser will turn and carry or twist the blank around on the platform the surface of which is of a character to avoid frictional resistance to such turning. When such cup and blank reach the end of the cam strip, the blank has been given a quarter turn and is delivered under the guides 40 and to the mechanism of group C which so squares up or registers the turned blank against the side edge guide 49 that the blank is accurately delivered by the pin chains 41 for the completioneof the folding by the secondary folding mechanism.

From the above it will be understood that the chain platform 15 and each moving presser 30 constitutes a travelling turn table mechanism which transports a blank from a primary to a secondary folding mechanism without requiring any stoppage at an intermediate point or any feeding mechanism to start the blank in a second direction of Having now described my invention, I

' claim 1. A blank folding machine having primary and secondary folding mechanisms,

folding mechanisms, and an intermediate travelling mechanism for imparting a partial turning movement to the blanks.

3. A machine for folding blanks while travelling, said machine having a primary folding mechanism, a travelling turn table mechanism, means for registering the blanks delivered from said turn table mechanism,

and secondary folding mechanism in position to act on blanks delivered to it by the registering means.

4. A blank folding machine having means for causing blanks to travel in a substantially direct path of movement from one end of the machine to the other, said machine including means for first partially folding the blanks, means for conveying the blanks beyond the aforesaid first folding means, travelling mechanism for then turning them, and means for then completing the folding.

5. Mechanism for imparting turns to blanks, comprising a moving platform and a series of pressers mounted to bear on and travel with blanks supported by said platform, means being provided for partly turning said pressers in a plane parallel with said plat orm. 6. Mechanism for imparting turns to blanks, comprising an. endless travelling platform and an endless series of pressers mounted to bear on and travel with blanks supported by said platform, means being provided for partly turning, said pressers in a plane parallel with said platform.

7-. Mechanism for turning blanks while travelling, comprising an endless travelling platform, a pair of endless chains above ,said

means for guiding said chains "in a path a portion of which is parallel with said platform, and means for causing said friction pressers to turn laterally while moving with the platform. 7 J

8. .Mechanism for turning blanks while travelling, comprising an endless travelling platform, a pair of endless" chains above said platform, transverse rods connecting said chains, spindles supported 'by said rods, each spindle having a friction member at one end and a lateral arm at the other end, means for guiding said chains andtheir friction members in a path a portion of which is parallel with the'travelling platform, and a laterally inclined cam strip over which the arms of the spindles pass to turn said spindles on their axes. a

9. Mechanism for turning blanks while travelling, comprising an endless travelling platform and an endless travelling carrier a portionv of which is parallel with and adjacent to the upper run of said platform, said carrier having a series of friction members, means being provided to turn said members sideways While moving along with the platform.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

HAROLD J. GOSS. 

